W55 







DELIVERED 



ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF OCTOBER, 1S26, 



^MB S(^(Oa^^T 



FOR 



THE COMMEMORATION OF THE LANDING 



IVILLIAM PENN. 



BY -ti I.' WHARTON, Esq. 



PUBLISHES BT R£%tr£ST OF THE SOCIETI. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
H. C. CAREY & I. LEA— CHESNUT STREET 

1836. 



fi 






>N 



SKEBHETT NINTH STREllT, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



At a meeting of the Society for the Commemoration of 
the landing of William Penn, held at the Masonic Hall, 
24th Oct. 1826, it was resolved, unanimously. 

That the thanks of this Society be presented to Thomas 
I. Wharton, Esquire, for the learned and eloquent dis- 
course delivered by him this day, and that he be request- 
ed to furnish a copy of it for publication. 

By order, 

RICHARD PETERS, President. 

Attest, 

Peter S. Du Ponceau, Secretary. 



DISCOURSE, ^c. 



The memorable landing upon these shores of the 24th 
of October, 1682, deserves, and must elsewhere receive, 
a deeper consideration and a more elaborate survey, than 
custom sanctions for a public discourse. There were con- 
nected with that event so many circumstances of deep 
root and extended ramification ; its moving causes are to 
be sought so far from the sphere of its operation ; and it 
contained within itself the seeds of so many momentous 
occurrences, that the subject could not be exhausted with- 
out larger draughts upon time and patience than are 
usually honoured upon occasions like the present, when 
little more is expected or can conveniently be attempted, 
than a rapid sketch of some of the most important features 
which the anniversary recals to mind. 

Moved by these considerations, I shall leave to some 
future and better-gifted orator, the task of delineating the 
personal growth — if I may so call it — of our " great town." 
The antiquary — for Pennsylvania has already her antiqui- 
ty and her antiquaries — may recal from their long obli- 
vion, the rude and sylvan shores of Coaquannock^ " the 
grove of the tall pines," as they appeared a century and a 
half ago, and contrast the minute subdivisions of property 
at the present day, with the ample domains of the three 
sons of Swen^ the Swede, who at the period of the land- 
ing owned the whole of the city plot, and whose humble 
wooden dwelling was standing, eighty years ago, at the 
corner of Christian and Swanson streets. 

The society, to whose good nature rather than judg- 
ment, I owe the honour of addressing you on this occa- 
sion, are in negotiation with an eminent artist, residing 



6 

among ourselves, to paint the landing of the founder at 
New Castle. The expense of this undertaking, which is 
to be executed on a scale of no inconsiderable extent, has 
had due weight with the Directors ; but they rely confi- 
dently, and I am sure safely, upon the public feeling, of 
whose existence they have had abundant evidence, in re- 
lation to the patriarchs, whose blessed visit to this soil that 
painting is intended to commemorate. The addition of 
two hundred members to our list will be sufficient to cover 
the expense ; and the expectation that they will be obtained 
before the next anniversary, will not be thought extrava- 
gant among a people, who have in a few years given no less 
than seventeen thousand dollars for the privilege of view- 
ing a single painting. At some future period the Society 
may consign to the canvass the scarcely less memorable 
landing upon the territory of the Swansons, at that " low 
sandy beach," where the waters of the Dock creek, flow- 
ing from some unknown interior, reflecting only the wild 
grass and bushes which grew upon their margin, and bear- 
ing upon their quiet surface nothing but the canoe of the 
Indian, mingled their stream with that of the Delaware, 
then equally wild, smooth, and undisturbed. In the suc- 
cessive phases of the settlement as it waxed towards a city, 
the laudator temporis acti would find enough to awaken 
public interest. It is not for the sake of a poetical con- 
trast only that it may be worth while to trace the progress 
of local habitations from the primitive caves dug in the 
steep bank of the river, to the wooden huts which more 
adventurous settlers raised above ground ; from these to 
the then costly edifices, two stories in height, and in which 
bricks imported from England were the principal materi- 
als ; and from this sera to that when dwelling houses were 
erected at some distance from the river, and when Water 
street ceased to be the resort of fashion and the abode of 
all that was then wealthy or distinguished. 

But it is not in the simplicity of private buildings only 
that an antiquarian might find something worthy of com- 



memoration in primitive Philadelphia. When Juvenal 
spoke of the 

"Uno contentam carcere Romam," 

he as little dreamed of the generation that was to come 
after him, whose entire prison was to be contained in a 
small hired room in a house of very moderate dimensions, 
as he did of the existence of the hemisphere in which that 
simple race was to flourish. Patrick Robinson^ is not a 
very poetical name ; but it will doubtless find its way into 
the verses of some future satyrist, who shall come to con- 
trast the wealth, and the crimes, and the prisons of our 
modern Rome, with the purity of that period, when the 
said Patrick rented to the province of Pennsylvania an 
apartment in his dwelling house for its bridewell, its pri- 
son, and its penitentiary. The successive stages of civi- 
lization, to apply the theory of a well known anecdote, 
may be found in the hired room, in the wooden house 
which stood on the scite of the present Jersey market, op- 
posite to Lsetitia court, and which formed the second pri- 
son, and in the more extensive buildings at the corner of 
Third and Market streets, the next in the series, which 
continued, I believe, to be the city prison until the erec- 
tion of the present penitentiary. Passing from the recep- 
tacles of crime to the administration of justice, a lively 
interest might doubtless be created by anecdotes of that 
happy simplicity, which dispensed with the forms as well 
as with the profession of the law, and inflicted upon a cul- 
prit convicted of forgery, no other punishment than the 
payment of ten pounds, " in good money," towards the 
building of a court house, and the obligation of listening 
to a disquisition on the nature of right and wrong from 
the worthy magistrate who happened to preside. 

In questions of dress and manners a large portion of 
every community finds itself deeply interested. No record, 
I believe, exists of the prevailing fashions of Philadelphia 
in the vear 1700; but some traits have come down to us. 



8 

which hereafter may not be found unworthy of recollec- 
tion. Those who are accustomed to consider broad cloth, 
put together in certain shapes, as the only infallible test 
of civilization, will doubtless be shocked to hear that 
many of their christian predecessors, both male and fe- 
male, were clothed in the skins of wild animals, made up, 
I am afraid, without much regard to their set^ numbers of 
which pervaded the remote and mysterious localities west 
of Fourth street, and often crossed the paths of the pious 
settlers on their way to the meeting house at the Centre 
Square. Carpets, and curtains, and mirrors, which in this 
age of refinement are as indispensable as chairs and tables, 
were then matters to be read of and wondered at, rather 
than used ; and I find it recorded, that in many of their 
humble, but clean and peaceful dwellings, they enjoyed 
no other light than what struggled through the dim and 
cloudy isinglass. 

If, however, inconveniences were experienced, and if 
luxuries were wanting, which in this age have ripened into 
necessities, there were, perhaps, circumstances to make 
amends for the seeming evils, in the purity of life and in- 
nocence of manners which a village population and village 
habits, and the universal and hearty belief in the great 
truths of the gospel, were sure to produce. That happy 
period of simple manners and open doors has passed away; 
and with the increase of population and the growth of lux- 
ury if we have gained some advantages, we have parted 
with others, which however insignificant they may sound 
to the ears of persons accustomed to dwell upon the con- 
flicts of parties and the revolutions of empires, had yet a 
beneficial influence in producing that rich simplicity, that 
sedate and quiet strength, that aversion to all mere glitter 
and display, and that preference for the solid and substan- 
tial, which constitute, and long may they constitute, the 
distinguishing characteristics of Philadelphia. 

Leaving, however, these antiquarian details to persons 
better versed in that pursuit, I shall confine myself to the 



9 

moral of the great drama ; and in taking a brief survey of 
the circumstances which led to the eventful landing of the 
patriarchs, and a hasty summary of some of its principal 
results, I shall, perhaps, impose a heavy tax upon the pa- 
tience and indulgence of at least a portion of thisavidience. 
In the history of mankind there are certain great epochs, 
which stand out, as it were, in bold relief, and manifest 
the magnitude of their elevation, by the depth of the 
shadow which they seem to throw upon the ages around 
them. The seventeenth century of the Christian sera will 
always be considered as one of those prominent periods 
of human existence to which philosophy will resort for in- 
struction, and poetry for inspiration, and upon whose 
heights religion seems to have had a closer communica- 
tion with " the Author and finisher of our faith." The 
heavings of the human mind, weighed down by the accu- 
mulated oppression of ages, were felt throughout Europe, 
and were visible sometimes in religious, at others in politi- 
cal convulsions, which rocked thrones and dominions, prin- 
cipalities and powers, to their very foundation. In the 
various changes and agitations of that eventful period 
new elements were introduced into the political systems, 
new combinations took place, and the seeds of principles, 
which had been covered up for centuries, were thrown out 
by this intellectual earthquake, and germinated anew. Of 
the many remarkable events, however, of the seventeenth 
century, perhaps no one is more memorable than the colo- 
nization of the United States. Within the period of se- 
venty-five years, from 1608 to 1982, the foundation was 
laid in the wilderness of twelve vigorous republics, of a 
lineage of freemen, destined by Providonce not only to 
flourish and prosper under the benign auspices of free in- 
stitutions, but even to exercise a controlling influence upon 
the fortunes of the continent from which they sprung. 
From the moment that the first footstep of the English 
race was set upon these shores, the liberties of mankind 
every where received an impulse and a security, which 

2 



10 

might have been in the prayers but were hardly in the 
hopes of men. The planting of a continent, upon which 
God in his infinite mercy had bestowed a teeming soil, 
and various but temperate climate, by a race of hardy, 
virtuous, and pious republicans, at once scattered to the 
winds all the monopolies of government and religion un- 
der which the old world groaned. When the liberties of 
his country perished beneath the sword of a military chief- 
tain, Cato could discover no alternative between submis- 
sion and the grave. Happily for the oppressed of our 
days the horizon of human hope is enlarged. The sound 
of the first axe that was applied to the forests of the United 
States was heard beyond their confines, and across the At- 
lantic. It echoed through the dungeons and palaces of 
Europe, and rung the knell of many an ancient and many 
a crying evil. It taught mankind, that from that time 
forth there was thrown open to them a land of refuge, 
to whose limits there seemed no bounds, and whose re- 
moteness secured it even from the proverbially long arms 
of monarchs ; and that, however general and grievous 
might be the oppression and the persecution, the tyranny 
and the bigotry of the old continent, another and a better 
world was laid before them even on this side of the tomb. 
The last in order of time of the English settlements 
during the seventeenth century, and, with the single excep- 
tion of Georgia, the last original settlement of English- 
men upon this continent, was our own Pennsylvania. And 
if ever it be allowable for men to give utterance to feel- 
ings of pride and exult&tion in contemplating the charac- 
ter and achievements of their ancestors, it may be permit- 
ted to us, who on this day would recal to public recollec- 
tion the virtues and the sufferings of those by whom the 
foundations of this state were laid. History has pre- 
served a record of colonies who have gone forth in quest 
of mines of gold and silver, to recruit decayed fortunes, 
and bankrupt characters ; others, like the first travellers 
in Florida, have wasted their lives in the vain search for 



It 

the fountains of immortality ; and others, again, have em- 
barked in crusades against the heathen, for the glory ot 
God and the acquisition of their lands ; but the patriarchs 
of Pennsylvania, with a single eye to the welfare of their 
race, reared up their primitive settlement as an asylum 
for the desolate and oppressed, as a land of refuge for vir- 
tuous and pious men, and of hope for a long posterity ot 
freemen and christians. 

About the middle of the seventeenth century a sect of 
Christians, remarkably humble in their demeanour, scru- 
pulous and intolerant of the ornaments of dress, and the 
amusements of society, spiritualized and abstract in their 
form of worship, and whose doctrines breathed the very 
essence of" peace on earth and good will to all men," be- 
gan to attract the notice of men in power by the rapidity 
of their increase and the boldness of their assaults upon 
established opinions. In the English dictionary, dissent 
and persecution were for a long time convertible terms. 
In their penal code, non-conformity with the established 
church in religious practice constituted one of the most 
heinous offences. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
penalties of crime were visited upon the Quakers with the 
full measure of severity which the grievous sin of preach- 
ing without license, and bearing their testimony, (as they 
called it,) against the fashions of dress and furniture, so 
abundantly deserved. They submitted, however, with 
exemplary resignation, to imprisonment, fines, corporal 
punishment, and what is still harder to bear, ridicule and 
misrepresentation of their motives and deeds, until perse- 
cution itself became wearied of victories from which no 
laurels were to be won. The stubbornness of English 
opinion, which centuries as they wash over it seem only 
to consolidate and harden, left for the Quakers of 1680 as 
little hope of emancipation as seems to be entertained for 
the Roman Catholics of 1826, and compelled them to turn 
their thoughts beyond the confines of Europe for some 
vacant and unpolluted soil, where they might worship God 



12 

according to the dictates of their conscience, and far from 
kings and armies dwell under the shadow of their own 
popular government. 

At the head of the little but virtuous band, who for 
freedom and conscience' sake, abandoned all the comforts 
of home, and severed all the ties which bound them to 
their mother country, to contend with the perils and hard- 
ships of a distant and untried land, was that truly illus- 
trious man, whom succeeding ages have delighted to ho- 
nour as The Founder of Pennsylvania. I leave to others 
the task of drawing the character, and relating the actions 
of William Penn. Neither time nor opportunity admits of 
that enlarged examination, which the subject demands and 
deserves. Were I to confine myself on this occasion, to 
a review of his personal history, and an enunciation of 
his merits, and make them the subject of my discourse, 
how could I hope, in the narrow space allotted to me, to 
do justice to his vigorous but polished intellect, to the 
fervour and honesty of his faith, the liberality of his views, 
the sagacity of his designs, and the matchless purity of 
his life and doctrines ? One hundred and eight years have 
elapsed since the decease of this eminent man ; time 
enough for testing the durability of reputations, and for 
measuring the chances for what is called immortality. It 
may be said with truth, — and it is worthy of consideration 
of how few it may be said with equal truth, — that nothing 
which the progress of time has unveiled, has diminished 
a particle of the pure fame, with which his great light 
went down below our horizon. In the setdement of Penn- 
sylvania he proposed to himself no sordid or unworthy 
object. No man ever went forth on the perilous enterprize 
of colonizing, with loftier thoughts, or more enlarged 
ideas. He looked undoubtedly to some personal recom- 
pense for his losses and sufferings in England ; but such 
considerations appear always to have been made subordi- 
nate to his great object, the protection of conscience, and 
the cultivation of virtue, of piety, and of freedom. His 



13 

own words, which, as if he desired to be distinctly under- 
stood as to his motives, he has twice repeated in his wri- 
tings, afford a memorable index to his views : " Let the 
Lord guide me by his wisdom, and preserve me to honour 
his name, and serve his truth and people ; that an exam- 
ple and standard may be set up to the nations : there may 
be room there though none here^ (i. e. in England,) for 
such an holy experiment^ 

The experiment^ which was thus proposed to be tried 
in Pennsylvania, was one of the most important which 
human beings have ever attempted. In other hemispheres, 
and under other circumstances, men have enjoyed partial 
gleams of liberty, in civil or religious matters ; but it was 
reserved for the lawgiver of Pennsylvania to determine 
how great a measure of freedom is consistent with a vi- 
gorous and well managed government, and to prove that 
entire liberty of speech and action in matters of religion, 
may well consist with an earnest adherence to the faith of 
the gospel, and with a sincere and practical piety. 

The example which he proposed to set up to the nations, 
was one, of which, unfortunately for mankind, there have 
been few precedents. In was an example of Christian 
charity in its broadest and most Catholic sense, an exam- 
ple of moderation and self-control in a persecuted sect 
becoming themselves able to persecute ; and, finally, an 
example of just and fair dealing towards the original in- 
habitants and proprietors of the soil. 

I propose to ask your attention on the present occasion 
to abrief review of the several subjects I have just men- 
tioned; and to a rapid consideration of the results of that 
"holy experiment" which the Founder was happily ena- 
bled to make in his beloved province. 

I. No one circumstance, in the annals of Pennsylvania, 
has made a deeper impression upon history, than the 
treaty, or, more correctly speaking, the conference under 
the £/m, which took place shortly afttr the landing of Wil- 
liam Penn. That memorable and honoured tribute at the 



14 

ahrine of public justice, which has called forth eulogiums 
from philosophers and moralists in every part of Europe, 
undoubtedly furnishes a legitimate subject of thanksgiving 
for the people of this state. Whether we consider the ho- 
nesty of the motive, the fairness of the whole proceeding, 
or the faith which preserved it, we are entitled to look 
upon it as an event by itself, one of those unique and 
striking occurrences, which redeem and dignify the cha- 
racter of our species, and gladden the dark pages of the 
diplomatic dealings of civilized men with savages. 

On a recent occasion, however, the opinion has been 
expressed — by one to whose opinions on all subjects great 
deference is due — that the example of treating with the 
Indians for the purchase of their lands was not first set 
by William Penn ; and that in this respect he merely con- 
formed to a precedent set by others. With all the respect 
I feel for the source of this opinion, I cannot subscribe to 
it; at least without great qualification. 

That, prior to the landing of William Penn, deeds of 
cession were made in several cases by the Indians to their 
European visitants, collectively or individually, is a fact 
too well established to be denied, if there was a disposi- 
tion any where to dispute it. Such was the case in New 
Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, and the 
Carolinas, according to their several historians. But, what 
appears to me to constitute the great and distinguishing 
merit of the treaty under the elm, is the perfect fairness 
of the transaction towards the Indians ; the equality oi 
advantages with which they met the whites ; and the sin- 
cerity and good faith with which the negotiations were 
commenced and concluded. In that ancient fable which 
describes the progress and consummation of the diploma- 
tic alliance between the lion and the other beasts, we may 
find a type of the treaties between Christians and the In- 
dians of this continent. In most instances of negotiation 
with the natives for the purchase of their land — I believe 
I may say in all — prior to the time of Penn, the colonisf^ 



15 

backed their suit with that powerful argument, that last 
reason of kings, whose persuasiveness the defenceless na- 
tives were unable to resist. They perceived on the part 
of the Europeans a determination to keep hold of their 
lands, for possession they had already taken, without 
license ; and they could not but be sensible that the means 
were at hand to enforce that determination which they 
had no power to resist j and that peaceably or forcibly 
their territory was to be obtained. William Penn, how- 
ever, approached them with naked hands, with no other 
armour than honesty of intention, no weapons but reason 
and justice. No band of armed men was ready as make- 
weights to fill up the deficiencies of argument; no for- 
tresses frowned defiance upon the aborigines, and admo- 
nished them to submit to inevitable necessity ; no reve- 
rend expounder of the Divine Will applied to them the 
scriptural prophecy, which gave to Christians " the hea- 
then for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for their possession," and denounced everlasting 
vengeance upon them if they should presume to stand 
between the Almighty and the fulfilment of his prophecy; 
but all was openness and peace ; the dealings of men 
whom the common father created equal in rights ; and 
who — in the language which Penn himself addressed to 
the Indians — were " equally accountable to him for all 
the deeds done in the flesh." It was the unfeigned desire 
of our progenitors — I again use the language of the Foun- 
der — " to enjoy the province with the love and consent" 
of those whom they found in the partial occupation of it, 
and that love they hoped to gain "by a kind, just, and 
peaceable life ;" and to preserve by the most exact and 
even justice. 

Herein, then, consists one of the points, (and a sufficientl)' 
remarkable one,) of distinction between the negotiations 
of Penn with the Indians, and those of other provinces; 
that whereas, I repeat, in most other cases the Indians 
were overawed by a military array or other irresistible 



16 

force, and yielded their claims to what the emigrants were 
already in possession of; in the instance of our own state, 
the Founder, a year before his arrival, made known to 
them his determination not to occupy an inch of the soil 
without their full and free consent ; and in the never-to- 
be-forgotten interview under the Elm, consummated that 
intention, by a compact in which he met them as brethren 
of a common lineage, and treated with them as the right- 
ful proprietors of the soil. 

Another remarkable circumstance about the treaties of 
Penn, and which would itself be sufficient to distinguish 
them from others made during that century, was their du- 
rability. Unlike some other articles of the same name 
which have been manufactured in different parts of this 
continent, in recent as well as in the olden time, which 
scarcely survived the cooling of the wax with which they 
were sealed, the treaties of Penn were made for posterity 
as well as for the existing generation. They were calcu- 
lated, in honest good faith, for use, and not merely for 
show, and to serve some present purpose. From the 
landing of the Founder to about the middle of the last 
century, a space of more than seventy years, the harmony 
between the whites and Indians was uninterrupted by a 
single deed of violence. During this period the positions 
and the relative strength of the parties were entirely re- 
versed. From a small and unarmed band with which the 
settlement was commenced, the colonists had increased to 
a powerful and populous nation ; while on the other hand, 
by that fatality which seems every where to attend them, 
the Indians had wasted to the very skeleton of their for- 
mer strength. Of their rapid advances in strength, how- 
ever, no advantage was taken by the government or people 
of Pennsylvania. Their compacts were preserved invio- 
late, the rights of these children of a common humanity 
were scrupulously respected, and thus a prouder title and a 
higher glory was gained for Pennsylvania than the most 
brilliant triumphs that military tactics could obtain over 



17 

this defenceless race. I allude to the appellation justly 
bestowed upon the land of " unbroken faith." 

That a similar degree of harmony existed between the 
colonists of other provinces and the Indians of their vici- 
nity, will not be asserted by those who have looked into 
their histories with any attention. If we were to admit 
that their treaties were made in good faith, and without 
military control, it must still be conceded, on the other 
hand, that they were not maintained in the same spirit. 
The history of many of these states is in fact little more 
than a monotonous detail of minute warfare with the ori- 
ginal proprietors of the soil, a lamentable record of deso- 
lated fields and smoking wigwams, of ambuscades, sur- 
prisals, captivity, or bloodshed. Let these annals be con- 
sulted, in no unfriendly spirit, and then let us turn to the 
virgin page of Pennsylvania, pure as the character of her 
Founder, and find renewed occasion for reverencing the 
magnanimous but humble-minded men to whom we owe 
so great a trophy. 

I have been thus, perhaps tediously, diffuse on this 
point, because the opinions I have alluded to are calcu- 
lated, although certainly not intended, to dim the well- 
earned glory which Penn has so long enjoyed among the 
founders of empires. 

II. In the settlement of Pennsylvania, William Penn 
proposed to himself to set an example to mankind of re- 
ligious charity ; to prove to the world that the forbear- 
ance recommended by our holy religion can be practised 
by its votaries ; that the reviled and persecuted need not 
revile and persecute in their turn, and that the most ardent 
piety, both of doctrine and life, is compatible with the 
utmost allowance for errors of opinion in others. How 
far he succeeded in this experiment is written in legible 
characters upon our annals. At the very outset of his 
government, he proclaimed to Europe principles, which, 
at that benighted period, must have seemed like an emana- 
tion from the fountain of all light. " Almighty God be- 

3 



18 

ing the only Lord of conscience," (these are the words 
of the first body of laws,) "the Father of Lights, and Spi- 
rits, and the Author, as well as object of all divine know- 
ledge, faith and worship, who only can enlighten the 
minds, and persuade and convince the understandings of 
■people, in due reverence to his sovereignty over the souls 
of mankind ;" and again, " Because no people can be 
truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil 
liberties, if abridged of the freedom of conscience, as to 
their religious profession and worship;" it was studiously 
provided, that "all persons who confess and acknowledge 
the One Almighty and Eternal God to be the Creator, 
upholder and ruler of the world, and that hold themselves 
obliged to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall 
in nowise be molested or prejudiced for their religious 
persuasion or practice, in matters of faith or worship ; nor 
shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or main- 
tain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever." 
Here then is the corner-stone, which the builders of 
other countries rejected, th£ broad and eternal basis 
upon which the religious liberties of this commonwealth 
were erected. In this single sentence, may be found the 
secret of that rapid growth, and prolific prosperity, which 
the first half century of Pennsylvania exhibited to the 
astonished eyes of Europe. A commonwealth was erected, 
with a rapidity only equalled by the massiveness of the 
structure, which excluded from its limits nothing but per- 
secution and intolerance. While in some other parts of 
this continent a stern and cruel bigotry stood warder at 
the threshold, and barred the gates against the entrance 
even of Christians worshipping the same Saviour, or ad- 
mitted only to persecute even unto death their brethren of 
the same lineage ; Pennsylvania threw open her broad and 
magnificent portals to every creed, to every complexion, 
to everv race of mankind. In her vocabulary, the words 
privilege and toleration were never found. Community of 
rights and equality of power rendered the words obsolete. 



19 

before they acquired significance. Taking her from her 
cradle to her present maturity, it is impossible not to per- 
ceive, that while in the perception and practical enjoyment 
of the true principles of religious freedom, Pennsylvania 
has always been a long way ahead of Europe, she is no 
less clearly entitled to distinction and honour in compari- 
son with her sister states, for an uniform and consistent 
course of legislation on this subject. I say this without 
meaning to except the states of Maryland and Rhode Isl- 
and, and with a thorough knowledge of the claims that 
have been advanced for them. I say this too with the 
most sincere respect for the memory of the illustrious 
men who were principally concerned in the settlement of 
those provinces. It would ill become one who professed 
to honour the principles upon which Pennsylvania was 
founded, to breath a syllable in disparagement of the 
names of Roger Williams and Lord Baltimore ; men, who 
at the opposite extremes of Christianity, united in main- 
taining the most enlarged and practical religious freedom, 
and who in an age, even darker than that of Penn, seem 
to have had distinct revelations of the true lights of poli- 
tics. But, while these distinguished men will always re- 
ceive the tribute of admiration for the purity of their 
views, and the wisdom of their counsels, we must take 
care not to confound their individual characters and sys- 
tems, with those of the republics they established. It is 
of the history of these states as a whole, and of their legis- 
lation as a system, that I have to speak. When we find 
then that Rhode Island not only expressly restricted her 
toleration to believers in Christianity ; but, after the death 
of Williams, excluded Roman Catholics from the benefit 
of it; when we remember that in 1661, Maryland passed 
an act, directing that all Quakers found in the province, 
should be apprehended and whipped; and in 1696, by a 
refinement of cruelty and impolicy, in the same breath, 
enacted laws to encourage the importation of negro slaves, 
and restrict the importation of Irish papists: when I say 



such statutes are found on the records of these states, it 
is impossible at least to give unmixed praise to their le- 
gislation. No such enactments stain the pages of our 
annals. We can without a blush open our statute book, 
and challenge the enquirer to put his finger on a single 
enactment, in the long course of years, in which religious 
impunity has been violated. The stake and the gibbet, 
the rack and the whip, 

" Luke's iron crown and Damien's bed of steel," 

the tears of exile, even the sigh of imprisonment for re- 
ligion's sake, happily, and honourably for this common- 
wealth of ours, are matters, for the import of which, thank 
God ! we must consult other annals ; I wish I could say 
we must study other languages. In the midst of the 
troubles and mortifications to which like all other human 
institutions our commonwealth may be subject, when 
taunted in one quarter, or slighted in another, let this be 
our pride and consolation, that from the landing of the 
patriarchs to the present day, through all the chances and 
changes of an untried settlement, through colonial weak- 
ness and revolutionary fever, the great tenet of free con- 
science has still been uppermost ; and of the thousands 
and tens of thousands, who have lived and died in the 
belief of creeds as various and opposite as the human 
will, not one being has suffered in person or property 
from the most public expression of his religious tenets, or 
the practice, no matter how unusual, of his form of worship. 

III. If in the points I have mentioned, Pennsylvania 
offered an example to mankind, interesting for its novelty 
and glorious in its result, the experiments which the 
illustrious Founder proposed to make in political philoso- 
phy, were no less valuable and instructive. 

Our excellent ancestors and predecessors M^ere — it is 
well known — not statesmen by profession nor philosophers 
by reading. They had not, previous to their arrival here, 
taken degrees in the art of government j and to them 



21 

political economy was as a sealed book. But they were 
men of good education, and strong natural intellect, of 
sound minds and unfettered opinions. Bringing with 
them from their homesteads and workshops, these, and 
no other materials for government; but animated by an 
indestructible love for civil and religious freedom, to 
which persecution had only made them cling more close- 
ly, and guided by that sober and practical good sense, 
without which all the philosophy and all the fancy of the 
world avail nothing, they erected on these shores of re- 
fuge, an edifice, which, in its material features, succeeding 
ages can do no more than copy. With these materials 
common sense and right feeling, it is delightful and in- 
structive to see what may be effected to reform laws, 
eradicate abuses, and ameliorate the human condition. 
What have in other countries been considered political 
disorders of so much depth and magnitude as almost to de- 
fy removal, have here been extirpated by a single bold, but 
as with most other operations in this state, noiseless effort. 
I repeat, that in the early constitutions of Pennsylvania, 
are to be found the distinct enunciation of every great 
principle, the germ, if not the development, of every 
valuable improvement in government or legislation, 
which have been introduced into the political systems of 
more modern epochs. Name to me any valuable feature 
in the constitutions of our confederacy, or for which pa- 
triots are contending in other quarters of the globe, and I 
will show you that our Pennsylvanian statesmen, before 
the revolution, had sought out the principle, and either 
incorporated it with their system, or struggled with the 
rulers of the darkness of the old world for its adoption ; 
and to secure its benefits maintained a persevering though 
almost hopeless contest with that blighting privy council, 
which so often came between them and their hopes, and 
with all its pompous array of archbishops, chancellors, and 
nobles, its Marlboroughs and its Sunderlands, set its 



g2 

cold and cruel veto on some of the wisest, and some of 
the purest schemes of human amelioration. 

Indulge me for a few minutes in a brief retrospect of 
the progress of government and legislation in Pennsylva- 
nia during the early years of its colonial history. If to 
some the survey shall want interest in its details, I flatter 
myself that the result will not be useless, in exhibiting the 
merits of our predecessors in, perhaps, new points of view. 
Throughout it must be borne in mind, that the human con- 
dition, as to intelligence and the dissemination of the true, 
theories of government, has undergone a prodigious revo- 
lution since the landing of Penn. When the state of men's 
minds at that period is considered, we shall find renewed 
cause of respect for those to whom so prophetic a know- 
ledge of the coming light was vouchsafed, who could 
emancipate themselves from the thraldom of prejudice, 
and innovate and reform so boldly and fearlessly. But 
let it be remembered, that the founders of our state are 
entitled to our respect and admiration not only for what 
they created and what they abolished, but for what they 
preserved and what they maintained. If reform and in- 
novation, even of the most radical kind, were at work in 
the colony, it was not rashly or in mere theory, but in so- 
ber and practical method, in the fear of God, and in the 
love and reverence of virtue and order. And herein, I 
take leave to say, consists the difference between the 
commonwealth of Penn and those which, before and 
since his time, visionary schemers have undertaken, in 
this and other quarters of the globe. The Founder of 
Pennsylvania was a reformer and an innovator, a repub- 
lican doubtless in politics, and in religion a sceptic, so far 
as regarded establishments, and an universalist in his pro- 
tection of all manner of creeds and practices. But with 
all this he was a devout and humble Christian, who in all 
his works sought the glory of God, and the moral and re- 
ligious improvement of his fellow creatures ; and was clear- 



23 

sighted enough to distinguish between the pure light of 
the gospel and that false and deceitful glitter, which so 
many vain men had mistaken. The rock upon which this 
Christian community was erected is that which we are told 
from the highest authority, " other foundation no man 
can lay." Our venerable lawgiver never fancied that he 
had made any great discoveries in religion or morals of 
which the world had before been ignorant. He issued no 
declarations of mental independence, and threw off no al- 
legiance to the sovereign of the universe. If he erected 
a temple to liberty, it was to that sober and chaste divi- 
nity, simple but majestic in her attributes, which in his 
own time Milton and Sydney, and in ours Washington, 
have worshipped ; not to that gaudy and meretricious idol, 
which later times have witnessed, fit " to show the eyes 
and grieve the hearts" of her adorers, and at whose altar 
hecatombs of human victims have been immolated. 

The political offspring of such minds and hearts as were 
brought to the settlement of Pennsylvania, purified and 
strengthened as they were by habitual draughts from the 
perennial fountains of religion, were if not theoretically 
imposing, at least practically excellent. 

The constitution of government in Pennsylvania was at 
all times essentially republican, and secured to the people 
almost as ample a grasp of sovereignty as they have pos- 
sessed since the revolution. While preparing his origi- 
ginal frame of government, the Founder is said to have 
studied the Oceana of Harrington, a speculative work, 
written in imitation of Plato's Commonwealth, and abun- 
dantly democratic in its principles and recommendations. 
The influence of such pursuits on the mind of Penn is 
sufficiently apparent in his first constitution, the preamble 
to which proves, if proof were wanting, how closely and 
habitually all power and government were in his mind re- 
ferred to and connected with the true source and fountain 
of "every good and perfect gift." After proving in this 
preliminary discourse the divine right, not of kings, as 



was then the established theory in England, but of go- 
vernment in general, because from our nature it is neces- 
sary to restrain evil doers, and is thus, to use his own 
words, " an emanation of the same divine power that is 
both author and object of pure religion," he proceeds to 
the subject of the particular frames and models of govern- 
ment existing, which he dismisses with this brief but con- 
elusive maxim, which embodies all the philosophy of the 
subject: " Any government is free to the people under it, 
(whatever be the frame,) where the laws rule and the peo- 
ple are a party to those laws ; and more than this is ty- 
ranny, oligarchy, or confusion." " Without a wise and 
virtuous population, however," (says this great man,) 
"good laws avail little;" "though good laws do well, 
good men do better ;" " for good laws may want good 
men, and be abolished or vacated by ill men ; but good 
men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones." To 
secure the continuance of a race of wise and good men, 
he insists upon the importance of education, in a spirit 
which was more than a century too early for England, in 
which it was written. " Finally," (he says,) " we have, 
(with reverence to God, and good conscience to man,) to 
the best of our skill, contrived and composed the frame 
and law of this government, viz. to support power in re- 
verence with the people, and to secure the people from 
the abuse of power j that they may be free by their just 
obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just 
administration. For liberty without obedience is confu- 
sion, and obedience without liberty is slavery." 

The frame of government to which this admirable com- 
pendium of the theory of politics is prefixed, carries on 
its face pretty convincing proofs of the democratical lean- 
ings of the founder of this democratical state. It pro* 
vided at the very threshold for universal suffrage in its 
broadest and most comprehensive meaning. All elec- 
tions were to be made by the people at large, without dis- 
tinction of rank, fortune, or freehold ; and the ballot-box. 



that " still small voice," that effects more valuable revo- 
lutions than the sword, was introduced, probably for the 
first time on this continent. The public affairs of the 
province were to be administered by a governor, by a pro- 
vincial council, consisting of seventy persons, elected for 
three years, but vacating their offices by rotation, one- 
third at a time, precisely on the principle and in anticipa- 
tion of what has been so happily introduced into the con- 
stitutions of the United States and of most of the states j 
and by a general assembly, consisting of two hundred per- 
sons, chosen annually by the people ; the number to be 
increased with the increasing population ; so however as 
not to exceed five hundred. The power of the governor 
seems to have been limited in the most cautious manner. 
He had no other veto on the passage of laws than what 
arose from his presiding at the council, where he had a 
treble vote. The judiciary was rendered more dependent 
upon the popular will, than has been thought in modern 
times consistent with an impartial exercise of their func- 
tions. They were annually appointed by the governor, 
out of a list of persons, annually elected by the provincial 
council. 

Thus popularly constituted, was the first government 
of Pennsylvania, and thus prophetically, if I may so 
speak, was it adapted to the land it was bound to. There 
were other provisions, which I have not time to notice, in- 
dicating no less remarkably the enlarged and benevolent 
views of the author. It was especially provided — for ex- 
ample, that the governor and council should establish 
public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of 
useful sciences and laudable inventions ; and committees 
of the council were established for the express purpose of 
preventing the mal-administration of justice, of encourag- 
ing domestic manufactures, and of superintending "man- 
ners, education, and arts, that all wicked and scandalous 
living may be prevented, and that youth may be succes- 



sively trained up in virtue and useful knowledge and 
arts." 

A frame of government, devised in the closet, at a dis- 
tance from the scene of its intended operation, and with- 
out experience of the practical workings of constitutions, 
Xvill probably require frequent amendment. The first 
constitution of Pennsylvania, however, possessed fewer 
defects than might have been looked for. The only prac- 
tical inconvenience suffered from it, was in the clause fix- 
ing the number of the council and assembly, which were 
too numerous for the population of the time. In fact, at 
the first assembly which met at Chester, only seventy-two 
persons appeared for both these bodies. Shortly after- 
wards the people petitioned for an alteration in this part 
of the constitution ; and, with characteristic simplicity 
and plain speaking, represented, that "the fewness of 
their numbers, their inability in estate and unskilfulness 
in matters of government, did not permit them to serve 
in so large a council and assembly." On the 2d of April, 
1683, a new charter was granted at Philadelphia, by the 
provisions of which the number of the council was re- 
duced to eighteen, three for each county, and the assem- 
bly to six for each county, or thirty-six in all. In most 
other respects the features of the original frame were re- 
tained in the charter. Universal suffrage, rotation in of- 
fice, in order, as it was expressed, " that all who were 
capable and qualified may be fitted for government and 
have a share of the care and burthen of it;" voting by 
ballot, and other popular provisions were carefully pro- 
vided for. An important improvement was made in the 
judicial branch by enlarging the tenure of their offices 
during good behaviour. The council were, however, to 
name the judges, treasurers, and masters of the rolls, and 
were annually to nominate all sheriffs, justices of the 
peace, and coroners. Among the provisions of this in« 
strument was one of entire and portentous novelty ; and 
however excellent in principle it may now be considered 



in this country, so much at variance with the established 
doctrines of the English law, that it must have required 
considerable vigour of mind to introduce it. 

The spirit of the English legislation respecting foreign- 
ers is precisely in accordance with the popular theory, 
which, in their and our common vocabulary, has made out- 
landish signify something odious and repulsive. The 
stranger who would seek an asylum in England, as a 
country of comparative public freedom and personal se- 
curity, finds the shore bristling with hostilities the mo- 
ment he sets his foot upon it- He is disabled from hold- 
ing land, either on purchase or by lease ; if a manufacturer 
or mechanic he finds a statute in existence which forbids 
his working on his own account ; and should he at a great 
expense, and with almost insuperable difficulty, obtain a 
special act of parliament for his naturalization, he is still 
subjected to the mortification of perceiving, that he can 
never become a member of parliament, or hold any office 
however insignificant. All this supposes him to have 
emigrated from a country at peace with England. Should 
war break out, however, the law punishes him for the cir- 
cumstance of his nativity by forfeiture of all his property ; 
and even his personal security becomes dependent upon 
the public favour. Such was the alien code of England 
when the settlement of Pennsylvania took place. It is 
well known that its severity has not been mitigated since 
that period. The enlarged intellect of the Founder at 
once perceived how cruel and impolitic were these re- 
strictions ; and as early as 1683 he took care to make it a 
constitutional provision, that if an alien who purchased 
lands in the province should die before he could become 
naturalized, his right and interest therein should, not- 
withstanding, descend to his relations exactly as if he had 
been a citizen. In this salutary innovation may be per- 
ceived the germ of that enlightened system, which, in 
spite of the counteraction of the privy council, so mate- 
rially promoted the population and prosperity of the state, 



28 

by inviting within her borders the sturdy and honest and 
industrious Germans, the generous and warm-hearted 
Irish, and the countless thousands of other races, who 
have found in this land of blessings that security and en- 
joyment which their native soil denied them. 

Another provision, in the charter of 1683, destroyed at 
one blow the whole body of the game laws, if so artificial 
a system was capable of being transplanted here. " That 
the inhabitants of this province may be accommodated 
with such food and sustenance as God in his providence 
hath freely afforded," liberty was given to all "to fowl 
and hunt upon the lands they hold, and all other lands 
therein not enclosed, and to fish in all waters in the said 
lands, and in all rivers and rivulets." The same anxious 
provisions for erecting public schools, and encouraging 
and rewarding the authors of useful sciences, and lauda- 
ble inventions, appear in this charter as in the first frame 
of government. 

The constitution, thus adopted, continued to be the 
rule of government in Pennsylvania, from 1683, and 
during the temporary recess of the proprietary dominion, 
until November 1696, when, the Founder being in England, 
a new charter was enacted by governor Markham with 
the advice and consent of the assembly, which made some 
important modifications of the original instrument. Ex- 
perience seems to have proved the inconvenience of 
numerous legislative bodies, since we find that the num- 
ber of the council was again reduced to two for each 
county, and the assembly to double that number for the 
same district. The right of suffrage was restricted to 
such as were free denizens, twenty-one years of age, and 
who had fifty acres of land, or were otherwise worth fifty 
pounds, and had been resident in the province for the space 
of two years before the election. This restriction however 
must have been little more than nominal, since there 
were few, if any, at that period, who were not freeholders 
or otherwise qualified. 



S9 

There appears in this instrument, for the first time in 
our history, a provision for the payment of members of 
the legislature for their services. This also, it is well 
known, was an innovation on the English rule. The sum 
of five shillings per diem was to be allowed to the members 
of the council, and four shillings to the members of the 
assembly; sums which, if the alteration in the value of 
money be considered, are not materially below what the 
economy of the present generation admits. We also find, 
for the first time recognized, the right of the people to 
make use of an affirmation instead of an oath, whenever 
their conscience appeared to them to require it. The prac- 
tice was probably coeval with the settlement of the pro- 
vince. 

From 1696 to 1701, the charter I have just mentioned 
was the constitution of the colony. On the return of the 
Founder to the country of his affections, and as he appear- 
ed earnestly to hope the place of his final rest, he granted 
a new charter to the people at Philadelphia, on the 28th of 
October, 1701. The first clause promulgated anew the 
great principles of religious freedom, which had been 
avowed at the outset of the province ; and the last sen- 
tence declared, that " because the happiness of mankind 
depends so much upon their enjoying of liberty of their 
conscience, the first article, and every part and clause 
thereof, should be kept and remain without any alteration 
inviolably forever." 

The provisions relating to the number of members of 
assembly, and the rights and qualifications of the electors 
and elected, appear to have been, in all respects, similar 
to those of the charter of 1696. 

Among the new principles introduced, however, were 
two, which, as they were bold and signally valuable inno- 
vations upon the common law brought over by the colo- 
nists, deserve particular remark and remembrance. 

In the penal code of England, distinguished as it is for 
its severity, there were few more revolting features than 



30 

those provisions which refused to persons accused oi 
crime the advantage of counsel ta defend them, and the 
benefit of witnesses upon oath. Against these inhuman 
restraints wise and good men long remonstrated in vain ; 
and the bench and the bar were reduced to the necessity 
of eluding what they had no power to counteract. After 
repeated efforts to induce the parliament to rescind or 
modify these regulations, an act was obtained in 1701, 
permitting witnesses to be heard on behalf of the accused j 
but in this nineteenth century it is still the law of England 
that, with the exceptions of treason and misdemeanour, 
persons indicted of offences may not have the assistance of 
counsel to explain their case to the jury, or refute the so- 
phisms of the advocate for the crown. Even so recently as 
the last session of the last parliament of Great Britain, an 
effort to remove this stigma from their code was defeated. 
The besetting fear of innovation triumphed over the plain- 
est reasoning and the most humane appeals. It was not so 
with our single-minded ancestors. To them antiquity was 
venerable and valuable, precisely as it was useful, and no 
farther. They had no such superstitious reverence for the 
common law as to transplant to this soil her weeds as well 
as her flowers . Innovation was their business, and equal and 
exact justice between man and man was to be administer- 
ed, let it cost what it might of Gothic or feudal relics. By 
a single line, and with nervous brevity, they swept from 
the criminal code of Pennsylvania these unjustifiable re- 
straints upon the right of self-defence. By making it a 
constitutional provision, " that all criminals shall have the 
same privileges of witnesses and counsel as their prose- 
cutors," they rendered the benefit permanent. 

Another odious remnant of a barbarous age, which was 
dispatched with as little ceremony and as much honest 
boldness, as that I have just mentioned, was the common 
law respecting suicides. That same code which confound- 
ed together crime and accusation, by refusing the means 
of defence to persons indicted, had, in its provisions for 



31 

the case of self-destruction, displayed no less humanity 
and wisdom. It often happens in the calamitous event of 
suicide, that a family of helpless infants is left without 
their head and support, to derive what subsistence they 
may from the estate of their parent. It has pleased the 
English law to direct in such case, that the goods of the 
unhappy suicide, his whole property, as it may be, shall 
be swept into the public coffers, by way, as it is called, of 
punishment for the crime ; and this rule knows no excep- 
tion except in case of lunacy. The manly sense of the 
Founder and his legislature revolted at this hideous in- 
justice, and extinguished it, together with another super- 
stitious absurdity of the same system, in one short but 
comprehensive sentence : " If any person through tempta- 
tion or melancholy shall destroy himself, his estate, real 
and personal, shall, notwithstanding, descend to his wife 
and children, or relations, as if he had died a natural 
death ; and if any person shall be destroyed or killed by 
casualty or accident, there shall be no forfeiture to the 
governor by reason thereof." 

It was under this charter that Pennsylvania was govern- 
ed from the year 1701 to the period of the revolution. 

Thus, from the foundation of the state to its entire 
emancipation from foreign control, it will be found that 
its inhabitants had secured for themselves a degree of po- 
litical freedom to which the revolution, glorious as it was, 
could add little ; and, if their form of government be com- 
pared with those of other colonies, it will be found in most 
cases far beyond them in practical usefulness as well as 
in excellence of doctrine. 

From this rapid view of the history of our early consti- 
tutions, let us turn to the progress of legislation in our 
commonwealth. Under a popular government legislation 
may be considered one of the surest indicia of the current 
of public feeling, and perhaps may be called the barome- 
ter of public intelligence. If this be true, we shall find 
\ipon the most critical examination of our statute book, 



3;5J 

that, whether we look at the laws relating to political and 
personal rights, or those affecting property, we shall have 
no cause to be ashamed of either the sagacity or sound- 
ness of heart of our early lawgivers. 

The laws relating to political rights will be found in 
perfect accordance with the liberal provisions of the se- 
veral charters. In the same lofty spirit of freedom which 
breathes through the whole frame of government, it was 
declared by one of the earliest laws, that "no tax should 
be laid but by virtue of a law made by the freemen of the 
province ; and whoever should collect or pay a tax, other- 
wise laid, should be held and punished as an enemy and 
betrayer of his country." Let it be remembered that this 
declaration of political orthodoxy was promulgated six 
years before the revolution, which deprived James II. of 
his crown, had sanctioned the utterance of similar senti- 
ments in England. 

There is, perhaps, no branch of legislation, in regard 
to which Pennsylvania is entitled to so much distinction, 
as that relating to crimes and punishments. At the period 
of the settlement of Pennsylvania, the penal code of Eng- 
land was remarkable, even among the European systems, 
for the confusion and incongruity of its enactments, and 
the severity of its denunciations. The philosophy of pe- 
nalties was then either unknown or unheeded ; and go- 
vernments who, according to the practice of the times, 
scattered the punishment of death almost broadcast among 
offenders, reaped nothing but a renewed harvest of crime. 
Seventy years before Beccaria enlightened Europe by his 
sagacious and humane reflections upon punishments, the 
soundest of his theories and the most judicious o£,,his re- 
commendations had been put' in, operation bylthe law- 
givers of Pennsylvania. In their plain and. unvarnished 
code, without a word of declamation, or a syil^^f about 
philosophy and the fitness of things, they settled in a few 
lines the whole of what philanthropists in other countries 
have since be€n contending for with so much earnestness 
and anxietv. 



33 

The history of this attempt at reformation, (for so it 
proved,) may be briefly told. By the charter of Charles 
II. it was provided, with all the tenderness of maternal 
care, that the laws of the colony respecting felonies should 
be the same with those of England, until altered by future 
legislatures, who were directed to make their acts " as 
near as conveniently may be to those of England." In 
the opinion of William Penn and his fellow colonists it 
was not convenient^ for a moment, to naturalize on this 
shore a code of laws which breathed death in every line. 
Accordingly, i7i the great law, the whole of the English 
system was abrogated, and a new and more rational 
scheme introduced. One crime, and one only, was to be 
punished with death, namely, malicious and premeditated 
murder. For all others, in anticipation of the modern 
theory, the punishment was to be imprisonment at hard 
labour for various periods, according to the enormity of 
the offence ; and in some cases forfeiture of estate to the 
party aggrieved. Thus at one blow, were upwards of 
one hundred capital felonies extinguished, by providing 
in their place temperate and practical modes of punish- 
ment. As soon, however, as the intelligence of this sacri- 
legious innovation upon the existing code reached Eng- 
land, the privy council, scandalized and indignant, re- 
pealed the obnoxious act, and directed the English laws 
to be forthwith restored. Regardless of their injunction, 
the assembly of the province, without a moment's delay 
re-enacted the same merciful provisions ; and holding to 
them with a tenacity which cannot be sufficiently com- 
mended, they succeeded in making them the rule of con- 
duct in Pennsylvania for a quarter of a century. The 
British government had not, however, given up the con- 
test. Unable by direct means to force their criminal 
code upon the legislature, they contrived an ingenious 
mode of effecting their object. The principal offices of 
government had been from the first settlement in the 
hands of the Quakers, whose conscientious scruples pre- 
vented their taking an oath ; and the privilege of using an 

5 



34 

aflfirmation in lieu thereof, although adopted in practice, 
had never been positively granted by the British govern- 
ment. Thus inflexible on the subject of capital punish- 
ments, the Quakers were told from high authority, that 
unless they came into the views of the mother country, in 
this respect, the laws requiring oaths instead of affirma- 
tions, would be rigidly executed. Forced then to choose 
between the restoration of the British code, and the sus- 
pension of the powers of government, they adopted the 
first, (or rather a modification of it,) as the least evil ; and 
in this way did the remarkable stubbornness of the British 
ministers in the cause of sanguinary punishments triumph. 
It must not be supposed, however, that capital punish- 
ments were, in point of fact, inflicted to the extent they 
desired. The law was rarely, if ever, enforced ; and when, 
in consequence of the revolution, it became no longer ne- 
cessary to ask leave of the privy council, the first opportuni- 
ty was taken, again to introduce the code of reformation 
and mildness. 

Closely connected with the subject of punishment, prison 
discipline occupied equally the attention of our predeces- 
sors; and here fortunately they were not destined to meet 
with counteraction from the privy council. From their 
English recollections, however, they derived no benefit. 
At the period of their emigration, and long afterwards, 
European prisons were mere dungeons of safe keeping 
for those who were destined to, or had fortunately escaped 
the gallows. The security of the prisoner was the sole 
object of the keeper; the reformation of morals or the 
public example, seems never to have occupied a moment's 
consideration ; and pf ovided the usual, but exorbitant fees 
or garnish were paid to the jailer, the prisoners were per- 
mitted to pass their hours in idleness or intemperance. With 
a clearer view of the true principles of the subject, and with 
a brevity which is remarkable in all their proceedings, 
our ancestors provided in the tenth section of the great 
/ctw, that ^^ all prisons shall be work-houses ; and that one 
shall be erected in each county ;" and in the thirteenth 
section " that all prisons shall be free as to fees, food, and 



35 

lodgings." A provision sotnewhat novel, and of more 
questionable policy, seems to have limited the labour of 
prisoners to the remuneration of the individuals whom 
they had injured, by directing that felons committed to 
prison should be compelled to hard labour, " until the 
party injured be satisfied." 

It was not however only by reforming punishments, 
and by introducing labour and economy into jails, that 
William Penn sought to preserve his infant community 
from crime. That far-sighted patriot reflected deeply on 
the moral constitutions of men, and seems to have satis- 
fied himself that the prevention of crime was better for 
all parlies than the punishment of it ; and to effect this 
purpose, that the discipline outside of penitentiaries 
ought to be similar to that within them, namely labour 
with moral and religious training throughout the commu- 
nity. Accordingly in the earliest of the laws we find an 
express provision that " all children of twelve years of 
age — without discrimination — should be taught some 
useful trade;" and thus qualified to gain an honest and 
competent livelihood. Universal education, which at the 
present sera is the public-spirited care of so many good 
men among us, was then as it is now, looked upon as the 
necessary prop of universal suffrage. In 1683, only one 
year after they had landed, and before they had well 
housed themselves from the inclement atmosphere, it was 
enacted " that all children should be taught to read and 
write by twelve years of age ;" thus early endeavouring 
to secure a race of intelligent and educated mechanics 
and tradesmen by teaching them morals before twelve, 
and an useful trade after that age. In 1693 another act 
made more particular provision for " the education of 
youth." 

An enactment of not less value is to be found both in 
the laws agreed upon in England, and in the great law ; 
one which nevertheless has not yet been adopted in prac- 
tice, I allude to that which directs that " the laws shall 
be printed and taught in schools." If he who hung up 



36 

his laws so high that his subjects were punished without 
the possibility of comprehending them, is deservedly 
reprobated in history, surely that legislator deserves a 
distinguished place in the catalogue of public benefactors, 
who makes his enactments familiar to the humblest capa- 
city, and enables them to become the theme of daily 
meditation. In consequence of the multiplicity and in- 
congruity of our laws, it may not be easy at the present 
time of day to give full effect to Penn's recommendation; 
but the excellence of it wherever practicable is sufficiently 
obvious. In our higher seminaries of learning such as 
the universities and colleges, it seems to me, that an ab- 
stract of the laws, which would contain all essential parts, 
and only prune them of forms, might be taught with per- 
fect convenience and decided advantage. 

Upon the spirit of our legislation relative to slavery 
and slaves, I might if time admitted of it, enlarge with 
equal satisfaction and pride. For, it is no small tribute 
to our commonwealth to say, that within her borders, so 
far back as the year 1688, there emanated from an asso- 
ciation of individuals the first protest against negro sla- 
very that the world had yet heard. It was literally a voice 
crying out of the wilderness ; and a century elapsed be- 
fore that voice found an echo on the other side of the 
Atlantic. It must not be forgotten, too, that this early 
denunciation of slavery proceeded from the first German 
settlement in Pennsylvania ; from the root of that popu- 
lation which now forms so large a proportion of our state, 
and which, however it may have suffered from the taunts 
of other quarters of the union, is entitled to no small 
praise for its inflexible patriotism, its patient and untiring 
industry, and its exemplary integrity. This memorable 
protest was issued by the German Quakers who settled 
at Germantown near this city about the year 1682. Eight 
years afterwards the general yearly convention of the 
Society of Friends in Philadelphia recommended, that no 
more slaves should be brought in, and that those who 
were unfortunately in the province should be morally and 
religiously treated. 



37 

Having thus early taken up arms against this pestilent 
evil, our ancestors went to the extent of their ability in 
checking its progress. Here, however, as in most other 
attempts at reformation, they found themselves thwarted 
by the privy council, which with remarkable pertinacity 
successively and regularly repealed every law imposing 
checks on the further importation of slaves. So early as 
1705 a duty was laid on negroes imported, which was re- 
newed in 1710; and in 1711, without farther circumlocu- 
tion, a bold and honest act was passed, forbidding, in ex- 
press terms, the introduction of slaves for the future. 
The law, however, did not survive its passage across the 
Atlantic, but, as may be supposed, was forthwith repealed 
by the privy council. Foiled in this attempt, the assem- 
bly endeavoured in the next year to effect the same ob- 
ject, by imposing a duty of twenty pounds per head, which 
in fact amounted to a prohibition ; but the ever-waking 
jealousy of the privy council again interposed, and again 
defeated them. It would tire the patience of this or any 
other assembly, if I were to relate the various experiments 
practised by the provincial legislature to avoid, and the 
successful measures of the British government to fasten 
upon them, this accursed traffic. I have counted no fewer 
than fifteen acts of assembly upon our statute books, all 
passed prior to the revolution, with the same object, the 
abolition of slavery. The harvest of good works, which 
though sometimes delayed, never fails eventually to take 
place, came for Pennsylvania in 1780, when an act, 
equally noble in its language and objects, put an end to 
the slavery of negroes in this state forever. 

Indian slavery existed only for a short period in Penn- 
sylvania. All that is known respecting it is derived from 
the act by which it was abolished. The preamble to this 
law, which was passed in 1705, declares that " the impor- 
tation of Indian slaves from Carolina or other places hath 
been observed to give the Indians of this province some 
umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction ;" and the act 
then provides that no Indian slave should be imported for 



38 

the future, and every one then imported should be set at 
liberty. We may gather from this act, (which fortunately 
escaped the destroying sword of the privy council,) how 
tender our ancestors were even of the feelings of the abo- 
rigines. Of the spirit of the negotiations between the 
Founder and the Indians I have already spoken. The 
same mild and generous system appears throughout our 
whole legislation in respect to them. The utmost cau- 
tion seems to have been used to guard them in the course 
of traffic from suffering by the superior acquirements of 
the whites, and at the same time to secure them an equal 
measure of justice in all controversies. It was especially 
provided, that if any one by word or deed should affront 
or wrong an Indian, he should incur the same penalty as 
if the offence had been committed against a white man ; 
and that all differences between the planters and the na- 
tives should be settled by a jury composed of six of each ; 
and by another act it was declared, that no individuals 
should be permitted to purchase lands of the Indians. 

While with a sound policy and a liberal humanity our 
ancestors encouraged the emigration of Europeans, with 
moral and industrious habits ; and rendered it their in- 
terest to become orderly and useful citizens, by granting 
them at once the right of holding lands, and exercising 
public offices, they took care to discriminate between 
these, and the vicious and dissolute, the outcasts of pri- 
sons, whom the cruel policy of England attempted to force 
upon this country. Every measure of counteraction short 
of open resistance to the dominion of England was re- 
sorted to, to exclude this foul pestilence. Act after act 
was passed imposing duties upon the importation of con- 
victs, amounting in substance to a prohibition, which like 
the tariff on slaves, were as regularly repealed at home, 
until finally the British government, either wearied with 
the contest, or learning to respect the motives of the 
colonial legislature, abandoned their opposition ; and the 
importation of convicts which never arrived at any con- 
siderable height, ceased altogether. 



39 

I have dwelt so long and I am afraid so tediously upon 
the spirit of our early laws respecting persons, that al- 
though an ample and most prolific and gratifying field is 
before me, I must not venture to do more than briefly al- 
lude to the legislation upon property. If the rights of 
persons were guarded by our ancestors with a spirit and 
sagacity beyond their age and growth, we may see in their 
laws of property equal proof of their sturdy republican- 
ism, and admirable good sense. They brought with them 
from England a code of laws respecting real estates, the 
legitimate and acknowledged offspring of the feudal sys- 
tem, and perfectly well adapted to the constitution of that 
country, but inconsistent with the genius and operations 
of a republic. Such were the laws relating to the descent 
and alienation of lands which survived only a short time 
their transplantation to our soil. The assembly which met 
at Upland or Chester, in December 1682, and which in a 
session of three days — about the length of a modern 
speech — adopted a constitution and passed sixty-one laws, 
ought to occupy a distinguished station in our history. Its 
first act was to destroy the odious right — as it is called — 
of primogeniture, and to distribute equally among all the 
children, female, as well as male, that which by the law 
of England went exclusively to the eldest son. Subse- 
quent laws made certain modifications of this provision ; 
but the great principle was continued through the whole 
of the colonial history, until the comprehensive acts of 
1794 and 1797, placed our law of descents upon a sure 
and safe footing. 

A change, no less important and desirable, took place 
with respect to parents. Extraordinary as it may seem to 
persons not familiar with the firmness of their adherence 
in England to ancient rules, it is at the present day, as it 
has been for centuries the law of that land, that an estate 
— to use the professional phrase — can never ascend. The 
origin of the rule is to be found, of course, in the 
feudal system ; the reason for its continuance, as given 
by some learned writers, is, that by the laws of gravity. 



40 

heavy bodies, such as real estates, must always descend. 
Consequently, when a son dies leaving real estate in Eng- 
land, but without children, his father, however needy and 
meritorious, will, by law, receive no part of it, but the 
whole will pass to his other relations, however remote. 
We have reason, I think, to congratulate ourselves, that 
this never was the law of Pennsylvania. At the moment 
of the landing of the patriarchs, they abrogated this vestige 
of a Gothic code, and provided, by a special enactment, 
that in case an intestate should leave no children, nor bro- 
thers or sisters, one-half of his estate should go to his 
parents, and the other half to his next of kin. In the same 
spirit they threw down the embankments which the Eng- 
lish policy had raised against the general transmission of 
real property, in order to confine it in particular channels, 
and secure the importance of noble families. By an act 
passed in 1700, they directed that all deeds acknowledged 
in open court, and duly recorded, should have the same 
force and effect in barring estates tail, as fines and reco- 
veries at common law ; modes of proceeding too refined 
and technical for the simple and straight forward sense of 
our ancestors. One more instance may be mentioned of a 
very early as well as very beneficial departure from the code 
of the mother country. It is another of the principles of that 
feudal system, from which, if the English law has derived 
some good lessons, she has also inherited a variety of dis- 
orders, that landed property cannot in general be made lia- 
ble for the debts of its deceased owner. It may surprise 
some, who are familiar with our simple but effectual method 
of making lands pay debts, to be told, that in this present 
age, in the enlightened and commercial community of 
England, a man may die possessed of thousands of acres, 
and hundreds of houses, and yet, unless under special 
circumstances, as when he happens to bequeath his real 
estate for the payment of his debts, a creditor, however 
meritorious, who has not taken the precaution of securing 
his debt by a bond in which the heir is expressly named, 
may find himself without the means,, either in law or 



equit)'-, of compelling the payment of a farthing of his 
claim. Such a system was too unjust in itself, and too 
little suited to the condition of a new country, to be long 
tolerated by the lawgivers of Pennsylvania. Accordingly, 
we find, that by the great law it was directed, that all 
lands and goods should be liable for the debts of a de- 
ceased person, unless there was issue, and then all the 
goods and half the land, in case the land was bought be- 
fore the debt was contracted. In 1688, however, the whole 
of the English law, in this respect, was done away with, 
and it was enacted that all lands whatever should be liable 
to sale upon a judgment against the defendant, his heirs, 
executors, or administrators ; and such has ever since 
been the honest and salutary law of this happy land. 

I might mention many other facts illustrative of the 
thorough reformation effected in the laws respecting real 
property ; such, for example, as the enactments so early 
as 1682, respecting the recording of all charters, gifts, and 
conveyances of land, mortgages, bills, bonds, and special- 
ties, except leases for a year and under; whereby a great 
defect in the English law which that people have suffered 
from, and been complaining under for centuries, without 
having the courage or skill to remove it, was obviated at 
once, and in a few lines. In the succeeding year the as- 
sembly perceiving the inconvenience and reproach that 
were produced by the redundancies and technical obscu- 
rity of the prevailing forms of conveyance, enacted, that a 
certain simple form, comprised within five lines, and ex- 
pressed in the plainest language, should thenceforward be 
used on all occasions of the transfer of property. The 
deed was to be acknowledged in open court, to be certified 
under the seal of the court, by the clerk, and duly re- 
corded. This manly attempt to reform the abuses of 
conveyancing was not, however, successful. The law was 
repealed, I believe, a few } ears afterwards, but it has left 
its traces upon our practice ; and wliether it be owing to 
the want of skill or the good sense of the early practition- 
ers, I will not undertake to determine, but it is certain 
that the broad dull river of words which meanders over 

6 



4S 

so manj' feet of English parchment, is with us contracted 
into a narrower, and I fancy, clearer stream. 

In the laws relating to the administration of justice, the 
philosophic observer, who reflects upon the character of 
the system brought over to the province, will find much 
to admire, and something deserving imitation, even in 
these days of general reformation. When we find so 
early as 1682, a provision that persons of all descriptions 
might appear and plead their own causes, and that all plead- 
ings, processes, and records, should be in the English 
language ; in 1683, an anxious attempt to abolish impri- 
sonment for debt, by introducing writs of summons, in- 
stead of arrest, and making the sphere of their operation 
so extensive as to embrace almost the entire community ; 
in 1706, repeated efforts to simplify the action of eject- 
ment, that monument of the awkwardness of English 
pleading, and, (to use the words of the assembly,) to pro- 
vide " a speedy and expeditious way, void of colour or 
fiction for trial of titles of land," all of which, with other 
attempted improvements, such as the abolishing of 
sheriff's juries, and requiring all issues for the assessment 
of damages to be tried in court, were defeated by the 
council, when I say these and many others, which I must 
omit, are considered, we must again be led to remark how 
much the early assemblies of Pennsylvania were in ad- 
vance of their age ; and we must equally be struck with 
observing, how many of these laws have subsequently 
been adopted in other states and countries, with evident 
advantage and satisfaction. When we find them at the 
same time, though under circumstances of great tempta- 
tion, rejecting a proposed law to fix a price upon grain, 
and negativing a bill which went to exclude attornies 
from pleading for reward ; we cannot fail to admire their 
calm good sense in avoiding extremes on the popular side 
of the question, as well as their manly boldness in the 
eradication of existing abuses. 



43 

If, at the period of the settlement of the province, one 
of the professional statesmen of that sera had been consult- 
ed upon the probable issue of the experiment, his opinion 
would probably have contained a lamentation over the 
folly of the misguided projectors, and a prophecy of all 
manner of disappointment and evil upon their heads. 
" What good," (it was probably asked,) " can be expected 
to come from a people who set out with a declared inten- 
tion to tolerate every species of religious dissent, and to 
regard with an equal eye, and favour with an equal hand all 
the progeny of Christianity? What is to be looked for from 
such an innovation upon the doctrine of religious primoge- 
niture but dissent, disorder, indifference, and irreligion? 
Who can anticipate any thing short of wild and lawless im- 
morality from a community which almost abolishes the pun- 
ishment of death, and permits criminals to have the aid of 
counsel and witnesses on their trial ? What kind of stability 
is to be looked for in a government which admits foreigners 
to equal privileges with the founders, and proclaims the 
mischievous doctrine of universal education ? In a word, 
what but riot and misrule, early profligacy and premature 
decay, are to be expected in a people whose government 
rests on universal suffrage, without the aid of a monarch, 
a nobility, or an established church ?" 

Such, or similar to these, were doubtless the ejacula- 
tions of many grave persons when our primitive constitu- 
tions were promulgated. " Such are still the exclamations 
of European reviewers and sophists, regardless of the les- 
son which our history has taught. It is a triumphant an- 
swer, that the experience of our state enables us to fur- 
nish ; and it is thus, as I have before said, that we have 
lived, not for ourselves alone, but happily for the benefit 
of mankind in general, for the consolation and encourage- 
ment of the friends of freedom in other parts of the world, 
and for the signal discomfiture, by our conclusive exam- 
ple, of those missionaries who are every where preaching 
that there is no security for property or morals but in the 
throne ; no permanence for religion but in an established 
and exclusive faith. 

One hundred and forty-four years have passed over 
this state. During that period the little colony which came 



44 

over in " the good ship Welcome,'" has multiplied to a 
population of a million and a quarter of souls, not a great 
way behind the entire population at the time, of one of 
the three kingdoms from which they came forth.* This 
numerous people inhabit a territory generally cultivated 
with considerable industry and skill, and crossed and 
ploughed with roads and canals, to an extent, and at an 
expense, which no equal population of Europe has ven- 
tured to undertake ; are remarkably sedate and obedient 
to the laws ; are prosperous and contented far beyond any 
degree of comparison which our language affords; and in 
the great question of religion and morals, of faith and works, 
may confidently appeal to their unspotted history, and to the 
evidences which surround us, of their existing condition. 
For a delineation and detail, not less just than eloquent, 
of the manifold blessings of our present situation, I gladly 
refer to the discourse delivered in this place on the last 
anniversary by my distinguished predecessor. Did the 
present time admit of the undertaking, I could not hope 
to add a single trait of value to the striking exposition he 
has given, of the indications of substantial prosperity, 
sound morals, and intellectual excellence, visible in the 
progress of our population, in the extent and value of our 
commerce and manufactures, in the successful cultivation 
of literature and the fine arts, in the rapid and certain in- 
crease of internal and architectural improvements, and in 
the results of a strict and general attention to religious 
and moral discipline. This is the harvest which we are 
now reaping from the toils and sufferings of our forefa- 
thers. These are the certain and victorious evidences of 
the soundness of those principles, which, in spite of evil 
report and malicious prognostic, our venerable lawgiver 
incorporated into our political constitutions, which have 
grown with and corroborated our growth ; and — let us 
fervently hope — will, with the continuance of the Divine 
blessing, continue to abide with, and nourish us hereafter. 

* Sir William Petty estimated the population of Ireland in 1672 at 1,320,- 
000. According- to Captain South, however, it was in 1695, 1,034,102, 
almost exactly the population of Pennsylvania in 1820. 

THE END. 

L.cfG. 

LB D '04 



